Titles by Thierry Kuntzel

Nostos: I

Pervaded with references to Max Ophuls' classic film Letter From an Unknown Woman, Nostos I uses video to explore obsession, the imaginary and memory, relating the cinematic apparatus and the psychical apparatus. Kuntzel describes this work: "Three people, or rather three silhouettes of rare objects — frames, windows perhaps, a[n] illustrated manuscript — and a few minimal actions: pages being leafed through, someone sitting down, someone lying down, getting up, crossing a space, lighting a cigarette, a head turning, a mouth opening, someone looking around. There is hardly any representation in Nostos I: just enough to tip-toe around the edges of analogy, illusion, under the image and in between images." Unfolding as memory traces and dream images, figures and objects appear and disappear, decompose and recompose; disjointed fragments evolve in continuous transformation and manipulations of light and time. Raymond Bellour refers to the "traces that memory leaves behind, wipes out and recaptures again, the agitation and pain of a memory at work... The spectator, projected outside himself, comes to experience the functioning of his own mind."

With the participation of Andre Colas, Randall Coleman, Joel Meillier, Marie-Christine Moreau, Marie-Claude Rajon, PhillipeStollsteiner. Produced by Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA)